The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1887-09-17

1put my hand to my head; it was clannny.
rubbed my hands together; they were stiff
as ice. / looked at my watch; it was ten
minutes after three.
Ten minutes and still that sound was ring
ing i'll my ears-still heard the fast, regular
beats fall with a desperate hatred of energy.
little fainter now, and little fainter, not
ceasing gradually, but merely that a greater
distance was growing between me and it
whatever it was.
Should attempt to follow itl
Decidedly.
walked the length Of half the room and
the curtains blew back in my face. Ipushed
through them, the attempt at resistance CIV
ing me All angerei energy. crossed the
other half of my apartment to the door. Il
stool open
had left it closed, latchei, locked!
1passed out OH to tho gallery.
The sounds were now much louder, of the
same intensity rs ut the first moment had
heard them.
They grew louder still, and the long vail
bitter, horrible rs the wordless prayer Of
some diSembodied spirit in hell itself, sounded
desperately in my ears us pushed OH.
The corridor was very long, and it was not
until had almost reached the extreme end
of it that there came pause in the sounds
Istopped. passed my hands across my
eyes.
Was it l. Was l in reality awakes
Bah! Truly. AS stepped on n pace l
knocked against palm tree i'll its great
tub and bruised my cheek on the bark.
stool still once more, and then t.re came
asigh-Madre de dios!
Not the sigh of suffering humanity, and
that is sad enough.
Not the sigh of lost spirit, for that even
possesses n certain puthoS.
But the sigh of devil, and tremblcd in
every limb as heard it.
This devils sigh, and after it crash, us if
some one threw himself with the utmost vio-
lencc against the wnll of the corridor
lrushed to the spot, guided by tho sound.
Isprcad my fingers over the wall; it shook
slightly, tremulously.
Very we'll.
collected myself.
The morning had begun to peep in nt the
skylights and also ut tho windows below in
the court.
I gathered myself together with all my
strength Of lusty youth-I was six feet in
height and broad, as most of my country are
and threw myself against the wall at tho
spot where tho sounds had ceased
Once, twice, thrice! AT last the mud wall
yielded, and, envcloped, enmeshed i'll dust
and crumbling ruins, pitched i'm
In-where!
Icould scarcely breathe
Ichoked with the dust.
was blinded with it; my head swan.
Istaggered about, at every step my breath
seeming to come with only tho more diff
Guilty.
was sitting with this charnel house air
this spot rocking with the pcnt up, condensed
vapors Of mystery-death, what else?-for
800 years!
Ipulled off my collar, my cravat
Should go backl
No-most emphatically.
AS the question arose in my mind heard
once again, the whir of tho rods-the echo
OF tho devilish sigh.
The light, could now discern, struggled in
little through the Jagged fissure had made
in the wall rs forced my entrance, and with
it came whif Of air.
Iturned around.
BY the dim CLEAN l bel,eld myself in a
large apartment. At first could distinguish,
as cautiously crept around its four sides,
clinging to the cold walls, but little Finally
came to square space OF roughncss. 1t
was window. walled up on the outside!
With the increasing light, dim although it
was, behcld few molderng rags and worm
eaten bits Of wood, the remnant, of furniture
very likely. A pedestal of marble stood nt
the eastern end; it fell q cracking ruin as
touched it. A book that crumbled into II
film OF dust lay In one corner. stopped to
pick up its fragments. The only scrap thnt
held together was that portion Of the Cor
dova leather binding bearing its title-"The
Talmud"
l held it between my fingers, and, oppressed
almost to death by the atmosphere, male
for the aperture,
AS did so-again, tho last time--uncarthly
strokes fell ringing, stinging, lashing, cutting
OH the echoing metal.
turned lack, and stumbling to the middle
OF the room, or what seemed to ne tho mid
die, whence tho sounds came, dashed my
foot against something.
Whnt'
Wcl-this:
The skeleton Of q man.
rnisel myself upon my knees. l felt it,
saw it lying there in all its miserable squa!or.
In its neShl"s| right land, tightly grippcd,
fail of metallic rods.
In its teeth. held fast in the ngonics of
starvation, n stick of worm eaten wood
Across its breast, holding it pinioncd TO the
ground. lay an image of silver of the Blessed
Virgin.
The first ray Of sunlight that had penc.
trate'l this place in three centuries at this
moment crepJ Ill the rent 1 had made in the
wall
1t fell across the silver image
lifted it in my arms; it weighed full forty
pounds.
Did the quurraquirri ever again awaken
me at 3 o'clock in the mornings
No.
And was any one ever again disturbed by
those cruel sounCsi
Never.
And, after all, how can one say if did not
dream the whole affair.
Oh well, that is true, except for this
reason:
"Thc silver image" pitted and beaten,
stands today in the oratory of my fathers
house in Moscow, whittier carried it when
quilted Lma.-Count Chopolsky in New
York Mercury.